[Primrose Bolger]

Ginger with Sam and Rose's children

From where she sat Ginger could see the goings on where the food and drink tables were set and where the band was playing. Sam and Rose’s children sat near her; Hamfast and Goldilocks on her knees leaning up against her, touching the little ivy leaves and red hawthorn berries she was weaving into a chain. The others were busy with small chains of their own, the older children helping the younger. Once long enough she would tie their chains for them and they could wear their pretty and handsome crowns. Her own she was making for Miz Zimzi to wear, a fitting circlet for such a pretty lady.

She looked up just as the band had finished their song. Why there was Ferdy! She waved at him when he looked her way, and he in turned raised his mug to her and smiled. Elanor, a quite precocious young lass, looked from one to the other, missing nothing. ‘Ooh,’ she said, poking her brother Frodo in the ribs. ‘I think they like each other!’ Frodo lad, for his part, rolled his eyes at his sister’s comment. ‘Can I have some of those berries?’ he asked, changing the subject.